Braising enjoys new life
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
When chef James Gillespie is looking for a menu item that fits Sunset Grill's "American Bistro" cooking style, is easy on the line cooks and the budget, and offers a seasonal feeling of warmth and home, he thinks braising — slowly infusing meats and vegetables with moisture and flavor as they cook in a covered pot in the oven.
Chef James Gillespie's braised veal cheeks with pesto linguine is a bright-flavored, slow-cooked braised dish easily duplicated at home with more readily available chicken thighs.
When we asked him for holiday cooking ideas, he suggested braised dishes as a way to put the brakes on holiday stress. "You do a little work up front, and then it cooks itself," he said. And braising is a very forgiving method; if the company doesn't show up on time or the gift-wrapping party runs overtime, you can let a braise continue to sit in a warm oven for quite a long time.
Braising is an old-fashioned cooking method that's being revived in chic restaurants around the country. Braised veal cheeks, ragus, vegetable braises and even Asian-style braised tofu are the darlings of chefs looking for an alternative to the grilling and pan-roasting methods that have dominated restaurant menus in recent years. A new book, Molly Stevens' "All About Braising," is receiving critical acclaim and boasts more than 150 recipes. A search for "braised" on Google.com nets 548,000 hits, from rockfish braised in apple juice to cumin-braised Brussels sprouts.
But for all its trendiness, said Gillespie, "it's probably one of the first ways that man cooked." All that's necessary is a covered heat-proof vessel and a low fire. He points out that many familiar old recipes are braised: pot roast (both Western and Asian varieties), osso buco, short ribs.
Gillespie grew up in Youngstown, N.Y., near Niagara Falls, in an Irish-English household with a stay-at-home mom who cooked a full meal every evening, right up to dessert. She included a number of braised dishes in her repertoire.
When he was 14, he got a part-time job as a prep cook, though he admits he wasn't much interested in cooking as a profession. "It was the only job I could get. I kept trying to get other work, but it never happened." Finally, when he found himself at 17 kitchen manager by default of a local yacht-club restaurant, he decided to get some training. "The bug bit me," he says, "so I enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America."
At his first post-graduation job, in Texas, he met Russell Siu. Then he married a Big Island girl, and Siu's invitation to come work with him at 3660 on the Rise restaurant seemed like a great idea. He moved here in 1989, worked for 3660 for a while, hopped over to the Plaza Club for four years and joined Sunset Grill a year ago.
There, he says, he pretty much always has at least one braised item on the menu: braised veal cheeks in a tangy, caper- and olive-accented sauce, short ribs bathed in American-style barbecue sauce, veal shanks over roasted pepper polenta, veal-shank osso buco.
Keep meat moist
Author Stevens defines braising at its most basic as "tucking a few ingredients into a heavy pot with a bit of liquid, covering the pot tightly and letting everything simmer peacefully until tender and intensely flavored."
Braising differs from stewing and slow-cooking in that less liquid is used and the pot is always covered. The goal is for the liquid to vaporize, hit the lid, then condense and drip back onto the food, reducing and growing more flavorful with each conversion from liquid to vapor to liquid. Stevens even recommends improving the heat seal by place a piece of parchment paper under the lid.
THE STAGES OF BRAISES
Preparing to braise: Meats are patted dry and dredged in seasoned flour. Aromatics (garlic, minced vegetables, parsley, minced peppers, ginger, chilies, scallions) are finely chopped. Gather liquids (stock, wine, fruit juice).
Browning: Use enough oil to thinly cover the bottom of a heavy-bottomed braising pot or Dutch oven. As meats brown, resist the urge to poke and prod; let meats develop a golden-brown crust. Remove meats and set aside.
Adding flavor, deglazing: Aromatics are sauteed in the same fat as the meats. The pan is deglazed with wine, stock or fruit juice — add liquid, stir and scrape up browned bits, reduce by half or two-thirds.
Braising: Meats or main-dish vegetables are returned to pot and cooked either in a low oven (275-300 degrees) or on stove over very low heat (best accomplished with heat diffuser). Do not drown food in liquid. Keep pot covered.
Finishing touches: Once meats are cooked tender, the braising liquid is degreased (skimmed with a spoon), reduced to thicken and finished with additional aromatics, a touch of cream or whatever is desired.
Braising is neither stewing nor slow-cooking because the amount of liquid is strictly limited. You want just enough to keep the meat moist, and not so much that the gravy is watery or the meat pallid and stewed, Gillespie explained.
It's important to choose the right vessel for braising. Stevens recommends a pot that is heavy, not too big for the ingredients, rather squat and possessed of a tight-fitting lid (though you can always make one with foil). A pot that fits the ingredients with very little room to spare promotes the flavor-enhancing cycle of steam to moisture and moisture to sauce.
Moisture stays in
The classic braisiere is a shallow oval with a concave lid that brings the moisture closer to the food. These pots are often made of cast iron or enameled cast iron, but a heavy skillet of stainless steel also works well. Dutch ovens are often used. You can braise in a slow cooker, but you have to do the browning and reducing stages outside of the cooker, which makes more work and washing up.
Perhaps no other cooking method is so transformative — turning chewy, flavorless budget cuts into melting morsels. The TV Food Network's Alton Brown calls the process "miraculous."
Stevens explains in her book that braising meats melts the tough, chewy protein called collagen. Collagen connects muscle groups and promotes flexibility but has the exact, unforgiving texture you don't want on your plate. At an internal temperature of 200 degrees, however, collagen melts, helping to thicken gravy and allowing the meat to relax. Cooking meat to 200 degrees would normally result in stringy, overdone stuff — except in the gentle moisture bath created by a well-regulated braising pot.
Gillespie particularly favors shoulder cuts for braising. "I just think the flavor is more intense and it's as if there's more gel (collagen) inside, so you get this rich, thick gravy."
Cooking in stages
Braises are almost invariably prepared in stages (see above), first browning the ingredients, then reducing the liquid and finally cooking the braise.
Each stage, and each ingredient, adds a layer of flavor, said Gillespie. The vegetables contribute sweetness. The aromatics bring bitterness or heat. Stock adds richness. Wine adds body and acid. Browning the ingredients creates dark, smoky flavors. Reducing the liquid intensifies all the flavors.
There are short braises, mainly for vegetables, such as celery, endive, cabbage or bok choy. But the typical braised dish contains meat or some other protein and spend 60 to 90 minutes or more gently cooking.
"Braising," said Gillespie, "makes soul food."
